Intel Corp., the world’s largest maker of computer chips, is increasing production and commanding higher prices as an export boom puts American manufacturing at the forefront of the economic recovery.Santa Clara, California-based Intel’s factories are operating at 80 percent of capacity, up from a record low of about 50 percent last year in the midst of the recession. The average selling prices of personal computer processors have risen a total of 12 percent over the past two quarters.
Overseas demand for U.S.-made goods from semiconductors to printers is boosting the fortunes of manufacturing, which has been shrinking as a proportion of the economy in 13 of the past 14 years. As a result, trade may add to growth for the first time in a post-recession year since World War II, says Morgan Stanley economist Richard Berner.
“U.S. manufacturing has really seen a renaissance of sorts driven by improved competitiveness and strength in global markets,” said Joseph Carson, director of economic research at AllianceBernstein LP in New York. “Exports have been the key driver of growth. We think it’s a new trend.”
Net exports, or the difference in value between what the U.S. sends overseas and what it buys from abroad, will add about 0.3 percentage point to gross domestic product this year, according to Berner, Morgan Stanley’s co-head of global economics in New York. He forecasts economic growth of 3.4 percent in 2010 after last year’s 2.4 percent contraction.
We noted this trend in several places:
